Jacqui found this great unique boutique hotel in Melbourne when she visited a few months ago with here swedish friend Kerstin she was really happy with her stay here and couldn't wait to show us the hotel when the decision was made to overnight in Melbourne It has a strong rock star theme going on, and Jacqui loves it, wrote a pretty good post on it on her blog, read it herethen after sending her post to the hotel, cut a long story short, turns out the girl who owns it, Sally Bloomfield, is someone I worked with at Harpers Bazaar about 10 years ago, what a co-incidence but because we sort of decided pretty much last minute to come stay, Sally was out of town, so did not get to say hello

Aireys inlet I just love how this road snakes along the coastline, the beaches, headlands, rocky points, fantastic drive leaving the clouds behind us Always wanted to come and see the famous Bells Beach since I was a kid, here I finally am, but surf is not providing the swell to shwo me its awesome wave. It's tiny actually. 2 things that stand out after finally getting to be here and see it, it is really close to Melbourne, probably only a good hour drive, second, there's nothing here, nothing, the end of a looping road, but nothing here, no shops, no cafe, just a car park, was not expecting that, sort of like the car park at Margaret River in Western Australia Few guys surfing down there, but looking a bit mushy. We leave the beach now to head north to melbourne past the big bay and through Geelong.

And they are all lucky to have Diane Pernet as a friend ! so these shots are taken in the wild, just pulled the car of the side of the road , and there they were, not in some wilderness park or zoo, but right there in the wild can I just say, how fricken amazing is that !! stoked, first the Cockatoo, now this :-)

there's like a whole clan down here

and then this is where they live, in the gullys close to the ocean not happy with the other animals that come here and leave all their rubbish behind, disgusting

checked in on dark last night at this great beach side villa with a combustion wood fire, so we were nice and toasty last night, now up and at it again nice and early still some great ocean road left great spot to test out some sports cars, or any car really with some great waterfalls tucked in the bushes near the ocean road as well pretty

Childers Cove, great spot for the kids to swim close to shore and me to surf further out

we can sense we are getting closer to those Apostles, but still a way to go good for lobster down there I'm sure, how clean is that water now, it's getting to that stage where it feels like every 300m there is a turn off with a look out coastline here, for about 40 km is littered with scenic look outs like this one which is great for me but we haven't got all day to look at every single one like this one was just a little bit too long of a walk from the carpark for this one hehehe :-) one more couldn't skip out on this one though, the famous london bridge, it used to connect to the mainland, and tourists would regularly walk across it, thankfully no one was on it when it collapsed here's a shot I found when it was still intact, but shot from the other side here's another one, apparently, when it collapsed, people had just walked back across it, got to this point here to take a photo and watched it collapse, they must have thanked their lucky stars it did not happen 5 minutes earlier few more look outs

looks like a little brush fire went through here not so long ago

and finally, we reached our destination, the famous 12 apostles would be cool to surf down there, you'd only have about 200 tourists take your photo every 15 minutes :-)

Paparazzi time nice shot of the travelling crew

at the carpark, there's also a heliport for scenic heli rides, so love this shot of the windsock and arrows all those shots I just took at the 12 apostles had a nice hazy feel to them, and this is why, as we drive on about 20 km further inland, we see this massive bushfire burning, pretty sure it was a controlled burn off though last shot of the day near Johanna Beach

Jacqui has a hold of my new friendSo let me show this place we found on the internet called Codrington Gardens click for linkwhere there is some first class accommodation at budget prices

Your own lounge area which can also be an extra sofa bed ( Evan ) doesn't that just look so comfy and original still with all its furnishings intact old rail carriages what a nice change from your normal run of the mill motels, we all loved it, originality and charm upstairs downstairs and a verandah outside The owners cottage on site as well is pretty cute nice detail on the old grain harvester old grain harvester

and of course there is Cocky My new friend the Cockatoo I was a bit sad to say good bye, since a kid, I've always had Cockatoos around at the places I lived at, and would feed them nearly everyday. and never did I get to touch one, let alone have one ride on my shoulder for the morning :-)

I SO WANT ONE ! ! ! ! ! Battery ran out on the video camera, otherwise would have shown you lots more footage :-) He just stayed me with me for ages, as I walked all around the property, back inside the rooms, get all the bags, pack the car, he just sat there on my shoulder the whole time. I so want one now ! ! !

South Australia that way Victoria this wayI must say, there is a lot to see and do in south Australia, and we only scratched the surface, but the salt lake is a highlight for sure. Hope to be back to explore more soon on the border here, a lot of pine forest plantations right up to the sand dunes, and you can see the salt spray blowing over the dunes bet you there's some good surf spots around here getting closer to our accommodation for the night lovely twilight colour